This issue is a tributeto Professor Miyeko Murase on her retirement after 35 years teaching Asian Art at Columbia University in New York. It was Dr Murase's many students who requested us, through Denise Leidy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, to be their forum for this tribute. In turn, their response to our request for articles has been so overwhelming that it is necessary to publish the tribute in two issues. The second issue is planned for February 1997.